Delivering on a promise to Columbia's explorers

摘要

On the day shuttle Columbia's crew perished returning from a U.S. scientific expedition to space, President Bush comforted the astronauts' grieving families, and vowed that "the cause in which they died will continue." Ten years later, the crew of Columbia would not recognize the nation's space program. Today, few Americans know where we are bound in space, when we will get there, or why we are going. Many think that with the shuttles gone, our nation's space program has effectively ended.